Despite its clinical importance, intermediate-term vein
bypass graft failure (30-50% of grafts) remains largely uncharacterized due to
the resolution required to image the graft wall. Using a high-sampling
efficiency inner-volume 3DFSE sequence that achieves T1- and T2-weighted
black-blood imaging with 0.3x0.3x2mm uninterpolated resolution at 1.5T in under
10min, we observed a significant difference in vessel wall area between
contrasts in lower extremity vein bypass grafts (LEVBG) in vivo, and show that
the difference stems from the intrinsic MR signal decay characteristics of the
neo-intima/media and adventitia measured in LEVBG specimens ex vivo and
correlated to histology.